Cindy Rehm – Bleeder

Bleeder

Cindy Rehm
Bleeder
1:58
silent
2014

Bleeder is inspired by the tragic story of Emma Eckstein, who was one of Freud’s first patients. While in treatment for hysteria, Eckstein underwent experimental nasal surgery at the hands of Wilhelm Fliess, Freud’s colleague and friend. Fliess believed there was an intimate connection between the nose and sexual organs and that he possessed a cure for “the female malady.” Instead of relief, Eckstein suffered excessive hemorrhaging and permanent disfigurement due to a sizeable length of gauze that Fleiss left inside her naval cavity. Throughout her treatment, Freud asserted that Eckstein was to blame for her emotional suffering and physical ailments. In a letter dated after Eckstein’s botched operation, Freud writes of her condition: … so far I know only that she bled out of longing. She has always been a bleeder…